I'd like to first take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Ben Culver (or “Benja” as I’m sometimes called down here in Chile), and I'm a fellow at Kingston Family Vineyards. I graduated from Princeton University last year with a degree in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and a certificate in Environmental Studies. The Kingston Family Fellowship is a year-long program working at the winery in Chile. In addition to hosting our guests at the vineyard, fellows have the freedom to pursue independent projects related to our own unique interests. Around the time of my arrival we began our transition to an organic vineyard, and I instantly wanted to get involved. Over the past 10 months, I have served as an ambassador between the winery and vineyard teams, learning all about the organic transition, and supporting in any way I can. I'd like to share here a little bit about what I’ve learned!

We officially started the transition of 50 of our total 140 hectares planted to organic farming in July 2016 (roughly 125 of 350 acres). You can see this transition area indicated on the vineyard map below. (Thanks to Iliana, Eliana, and Amael for helping me lead the charge on the map.) The certification process is based on existing guidelines in the U.S. and the E.U.. To earn full certification there is a 3-year transition period. We are transitioning a little more than a third of our vineyards in this first round, and our goal is to be 100% organic in a decade.

The first question on your mind might be “Why organic?” After all, we’ve been producing some pretty great wine (in my opinion) for nearly 15 years. As the old saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” right? Well, this decision really stems from two major motivations. First of all, and arguably most importantly, we are determined to responsibly manage the Farm that has been in the family for almost a century. We feel a responsibility to manage this land in a way that will minimize its negative impacts on the environment and ensure its longevity for future generations. Secondly, we are convinced that organic farming in the long term will create a healthier, stronger vineyard that produces even higher-quality grapes for our Kingston Family wine.

Generally speaking, there is a different mindset in organic farming when compared to conventional farming. Conventional farming is a more reactive form of agriculture. If you have a problem with a pest or a weed, you throw a chemical on it and move on. Organic farming is more holistic. In organic farming, we try to work the problem into the larger interconnected system of which the grape vines are only a small part. Organic farming is more of a bottom-up approach. A major theme in organics is focusing more directly on soil health, creating a balanced ecosystem to cultivate strong, healthy plants. The idea is that these relatively stronger plants will be more capable of taking on diseases and pests without pesticides.

In managing this transition to organic vineyards, we have to change some of the products that we still use in our conventionally farmed plots. In order to become organically certified, we are only allowed to use organically certified products. While there are some organically certified pesticides and fungicides, there are no organically certified herbicides or synthetic fertilizers.

Unfortunately weeds and the need for nutrients do not just magically go away when you transition to organic. Instead of using herbicides, we now have a big new machine that we attach to the back of a tractor that mechanically removes weeds from underneath the rows – kind of like a complex weed whacker. We are also learning to cope with a vineyard that looks a little more messy (because, after all, not all the weeds are bad weeds!). Instead of artificial fertilizer, we apply compost, sourced primarily from our dairy farm with some of the left over skins and stems from the vineyard harvest mixed in too. Next year, we will also be using cover crops between each row.

So how is this organic business going to make better grapes? It all circles back to the major theme of organic agriculture – soil health. Healthier soil will make healthier plants, which will more consistently produce better grapes. Compost acts as a soil builder, containing essential organic matter and microorganisms that will help to rebuild the soil, which was often depleted by herbicides. Our vines will gradually become less dependent on artificial chemicals and begin to strengthen their own immune systems. As a result, we expect our vines to be healthier and more resilient to variability in climate. We also expect the lifetime of our vines to significantly increase. Generally speaking (although I will admit, this is quite nuanced, have a look at this article for more), older vines produce better wines.

Organic and sustainable agricultural techniques are really interesting. It's a rapidly growing industry and science and I’ve just touched the tip of the iceberg with my experience here at Kingston Family Vineyards. If you’d like to hear a little more about our specific approach, please be sure to tune into my mini video series “Charla con Benja” on our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. The first video is here. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you might have. And thanks for your interest and support of what we're up to down in Chile's Casablanca Valley.

As I write this post, Byron and I are flying south to join Amael and our crew for the 2017 harvest. This is Byron’s and my fifteenth vintage making handcrafted wines on our family’s century-old farm in Chile’s Casablanca Valley. It’s striking (and humbling) to look back and realize how far we’ve come. Fifteen years ago, we flew down with our winemaking equipment in ski bags. We rented a small rincón at our neighbor’s winery, because we didn’t have our own. Byron and Mary’s daughter, Audrey, was a toddler, happily snacking at the casa patronal on bananas from Ecuador.

Kicking off the 2017 vendimia, we’ve rarely been more re encouraged and hopeful about the wines we’re making from our family’s vineyard. We’ve spent nearly two decades aspiring to make bright, energetic wines with character that speak clearly of a place – our family's vineyard in the western Casablanca hills. Our most recent wines affirm we’re getting closer to that ever elusive goal. It’s tempting to say it all happened in the blink of an eye. But remembering the ski bags of yesteryear reminds us that it has taken time to reach this point.

Byron recently described our newest wines from Kingston Family as seeming like a “quantum leap forward.” Meanwhile, his record banana-eating toddler leaves for college this September. What happened? What’s changed? What switch did we flip?

The harmony we find in our wines today evolved from the gradual accumulation of a series of small, careful adjustments we’ve made throughout a long arc of patient study, enological play, and the gentle passage of time. The following are a few principles of winemaking we’ve relied on over the years at Kingston Family:

A light touch approach. Our winemakers Amael and Byron see their role more as stewards than rainmakers of wine. They carefully guide our wines through a natural process, with their fingerprints always at the margin. For example, they pay special attention to our Sauvignon Blanc using minimal sulfur, and instead rely more on the naturally low pH and high acidity to keep the wines fresh. Thanks to this hands-off approach, our 2016 Cariblanco is the most expressive we've ever made.

Enological play. We’re always trying new things to stay open minded in the cellar. We often ask ourselves "how can we use tradition in new, creative ways?" or "what if...?" In 2016, we fermented and aged some of our Sauvignon Blanc in a concrete egg. The fruit came exclusively from our oldest 1999 vines next to the winery. We’re so pleased with the results that we decided to debut our first ever CJ’s Barrel Sauvignon Blanc. Amael and Byron also decided to experiment with making a Rosé. Conventional wisdom says Rosé is often made with Pinot Noir, but we chose to play with an early batch of our Syrah grapes. Chile's Patricio Tapia of Descorchados Magazine recently tasted and named it "one of Chile’s Best Rosés of 2016." We plan to release our 2016 Rosé of Syrah to our club members later this spring or early summer.

Our vines are approaching 20 years old. Our first grapevines planted in 1998 have matured, allowing us to focus more on flavor, aroma, and “character” in our winemaking decisions. Our2015 Syrahs show a finesse and harmony on the palate not found before. Older Pinot Noir vines allow earlier picking for their fullest expression, with a lighter touch in the winery. Starting in 2013, we backed off on Pinot Noir extractions, and surprisingly, less extraction led to more flavorful wines. Across the board, our upcoming 2016 Pinot Noirs are the brightest, freshest and least tannic, but most flavorful Pinots that we have ever made.

We hope you enjoy our wines and share your feedback with us. We’ve handpicked some special spring sets to make it easier for you to order. Wishing you all the best this spring season in the United States, and thank you for your encouragement and support of our family’s wines from Chile.

Our Old Corral Club members have already received their early allocations, along with the club-only special bottlings of our 2015 CJ’s Barrel Pinot Noirand 2015 Sabino Chardonnay. Some of our Old Corral Club members in California were even able to join us in my backyard last Tuesday to taste our new wines with our Chilean winemaker, Amael Orrego, who was visiting from Chile.

The purpose of Amael’s trip was multifold but one was was to attend James Suckling’s Great Wines of the Andes events in Miami and New York and pour our 2015 Alazan Pinot Noir and 2014 Bayo Oscuro. This year, for the first time ever, we previewed our wines to the press, sharing them with former Senior Editor of Wine Spectator, James Suckling, during his trip to Chile earlier this year. He awarded our three (then unreleased) Pinot Noirs 96, 95 and 92 points respectively, and our newest Syrahs 94 and 93 points.

We’ve been fortunate to recently receive great accolades from other members of the press as well. In its current October 2016 issue, Wine & Spirits Magazine gives 93 points to our 2013 Lucero Syrah, namingit among their Top 100 Best Buy of 2016. In its November 2016 issue, Wine Enthusiast awards 91 points to our 2015 Cariblanco Sauvignon Blanc, commenting:“[Kingston Family], one of Chile’s go-to producers of Sauvignon Blanc, has bottled a winner."

The 2015 vintage was exceptional. The brightness and energy of our new wines reflect the careful shifts our team has been making at the winery and in the vineyard. Our winemakers Amael and Byron explain more in their tasting notes (found when you click "Read more" in the descriptions on the individual wine pages linked)about the behind the scenes changes we’ve been making in the vineyard and the winery that you can now taste and see in the bottle.

For those of you who order our new wines, I hope you’ll share with us any feedback you may have. We are grateful for your support and enthusiasm for what we’re up to on the Farm. From all of us at Kingston Family, thank you for your support.

Last July we welcomed a new winemaker, Amael Orrego, to head up our family’s winery in Chile. Amael joined us from Viñedos Emiliana, a well-respected organic winery located in nearby Colchagua, a few hours’ drive south of Santiago. Thanks to the introduction by a trusted friend and winemaker, our first meeting was over coffee where Amael’s passion for organic winemaking impressed us. His broad experience working at vineyards in both the U.S. and Chile lent itself especially well to our Chilean-American family. Plus Amael’s connection to Casablanca is strong – parts of our valley are still named after his ancestors. We immediately knew he was the right person for the job. Not only were his values and goals in line with ours, but we had the feeling that he was a genuinely nice person and inspiring leader to boot.

Our team at the winery is small yet diverse, including our cellar crew and our guides who welcome and host guests for tastings and tours by appointment. Amael has led and created a trusted team in his year working with us. His hands are just as wine-stained as our cellar crew’s, and his boots dusty as he spends much of his time walking our blocks in the vineyard with Pato, our vineyard manager. On Friday afternoons during our long and often intense harvest, Amael gathers the team on our terraza overlooking the Casablanca, to relax and taste a special bottle of wine together.

Recently we sat down to ask Amael a few questions about himself, to find out about the best wine he’s ever tasted, and to learn more about his unbridled enthusiasm for organic winemaking. Below are his answers, translated from the original Spanish.

1) What interests you most about Kingston Family Vineyards?

I've always been a fan of Kingston Family wines, and I was especially drawn to the possibility of working in a small family winery. I knew I didn’t want to be an “office winemaker” in a large operation. I like to get my hands dirty in the cellar and vineyards where wine is really made. In a truly boutique operation, you get the chance to do that. That’s quite unusual in Chile, where many wineries are quite big. I was also intrigued by the opportunity to work in Casablanca, a cool, coastal valley known for its world-class wines. The Kingston Family vineyard is located in the coldest, westernmost part of the Casablanca valley, which is exciting for the challenge. Finally---only 10+ years into my career, the opportunity to work with well known and experienced winemakers from Chile and the U.S., like Byron Kosuge, was also a draw.

2) What is your experience with organic winemaking and why are you passionate about it?

I have always been focused on organic agriculture and sustainable farming practices, both in Chile and in the United States. We’re in debt to the environment, and sustainable and pesticide-free agriculture is the way forward. I also think that organic vineyard management is the best way for a vineyard to show it’s full potential. With balanced and healthy vineyards, you can produce even higher quality wines.

3) What is your family’s connection to Casablanca?

My last name is Orrego and much of the valley of Casablanca many years ago belonged to ancestors on my father’s side. Today there are still parts of Casablanca named after my family, some actually quite near the winery. In the Kingston farm offices, there is an old map dating back to 1932 that references “Orrego Abajo” and “Orrego Arriba”. ButI actually grew up in Cajón de Maipo, on a horse farm just outside Santiago near the base of the Andes. Today it’s a lodge, cabins and nature preserve on 3600 acres called Cascada de las Animas

.4) When did you first realize that you wanted to become a winemaker?

I went to college hoping to study winemaking. In Chile we declare our focus of study earlier than in the U.S., and I’ve always been drawn to winemaking and viticulture because of it’s deep connection to the land. I also like that winemaking and viticulture are a special combination of art and science. To craft a special wine that speaks of a place, you have to get outside of the winery, searching far beyond the barrels. You have to understand the terroir, the geography, climate, flora and fauna, the physiology of plants. Being a winemaker gives you the opportunity to work with exceptional people and be part of a beautiful process that evolves each year.

5) Who are your mentors and why?

I am thankful to have had the opportunity to work with Alvaro Espinoza. I have always admired Alvaro. Not only for being one of the most important and respected winemakers in Chile and the world, but especially for being a great person who is extremely open and accessible. He is undoubtedly the pioneer of organic and biodynamic agriculture in Chile.

6) What’s the most memorable wine you’ve ever tasted? What made it so memorable?

I have been fortunate enough to try many unforgettable wines so far in my life. But without a doubt, a bottle of 2009 Quintessa Cabernet Sauvignon stands out. Sofia, my then girlfriend--and now my wife--and I shared a bottle back in November 2013. I remember it not only because of the remarkable wine, but also because of the great company, the conversation, and the deep connection I felt that winter night. Probably not coincidentally, that’s the night I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with Sofia.

For many, frost conjures up images of a crisp autumn morning and a white dusting on your neighbor’s roof or lawn. For our family’s vineyard in Chile, frost is also a hallmark of fall, but it is even more so a rite of passage for Casablanca Valley’s early spring.

We have lived through almost 20 years of nail-biting induced by western Casablanca’s spring frost season. It has become part of what we expect each year, and we breathe a collective sigh of relief when late September comes and we’re finally in the safe zone.

We have extensive frost protection throughout our vineyard, including overhead micro-sprayers and wind turbines. The micro-sprayers are usually most effective, because as the water freezes on the buds, it releases latent heat and keeps the new green growth warm. But given Casablanca’s 9-year drought, it means making a big bet with our most precious resource, water. Once we start the water sprinklers, we have to keep them on until the temperatures rise again above freezing. Thankfully, our vineyard manager Patricio and his crew are quite adept at 2am decisions about whether or not to use water on those clear, cold nights.

The 2014 vintage was particularly challenging, when the strongest frost in over 40 years hit us on the night of September 17, 2013. Similar to a 50-year flood or a forest fire, there was little we could do to counteract Mother Nature’s powerful freeze that night. But also akin to those devastating natural disasters—with time we saw small signs of rebirth.

For this fall release, we made just 5 barrels of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay—bottling 50 cases of our 2014 CJ’s Barrel Pinot Noir, and 75 cases of our 2014 Sabino Chardonnay. Despite the high farming costs and meager harvested grapes per hectare, we are especially pleased with the quality of these wines and think they are among our best ever. Our winemaker Amael Orrego commented in his recent tasting notes: “it’s wines like our 2014 Pinot Noir that inspired me to become a winemaker.” David Gates, our longtime vineyard consultant from California’s Ridge Vineyards, fortunately tells us outstanding wine frequently emerges from extreme frosts as the additional bud break produces low quantities of grapes, but exceptional fruit.

Unfortunately due to the very low quantities, our new wines will likely be sold out immediately to our Old Corral Club members. For our general mailing list customers, we’re delving into our library to share some earlier vintages that have since been highly rated. I pulled together a fun set of my husband Andy's and my favorite wines that we too will be enjoying this Fall with our family and friends.

Frosts and other challenges notwithstanding, our family is grateful for our farm, and for the opportunity to share our corner of the world with you. Thank you for your support and enthusiasm for our wines; it means everything to our small, family vineyard.

Courtney Kingston is the founder of Kingston Family Vineyards. While she usually lives in northern California, this year she, her husband Andy Pflaum, and their three daughters are living in Santiago, Chile.

This past year was our 10th vintage at Kingston Family Vineyards. We've been farming in the Casablanca Valley for five generations, and our family tends to take the "long view" on things. For the last decade, we've been steadily zeroing in on how to make the best wines possible in the western hills of Casablanca. Much has stayed consistent for us -- our commitment to leveraging the best of Californian and Chilean techniques to make small lots of wines that reflect the terroir and climate of the western Casablanca Valley; our focus on pinot noir, syrah and sauvignon blanc; and the leadership of our longtime winemaker Evelyn Vidal and consulting winemaker Byron Kosuge.

In the past 10 years, we also haven't changed the design of our wine label -- a distinctly short, rectangular front label with an abstract etching of our 1880's house on our Chilean farm -- which has been essentially the same since our first vintage in 2003. But with this month's release of our 2013 pinot noirs to our mailing list, our newest wines will have an new look, which you can see pictured below.

Why change? Our main reason for the update is to better balance the display of the horse name we provide to each wine -- such as Alazan for our flagship pinot noir, or Cariblanco for our sauvignon blanc -- with our name, Kingston Family Vineyards. Over the years we've received feedback from fans and sommeliers that they wanted us to increase the visibility of the Kingston Family name & logo, yet not give up the horse-name motif. So to better accommodate both our family name and each wine's name, we've increased the size of the label, and in so doing have also updated the label design. We hope you like it.

Most important of course, is that what's in the bottle this year and in the next decade is of the same caliber and aspiration as our wines of the past decade. And we're confident we're delivering on that.

Courtney Kingston

P.S. Our new label features the horse names in a script reminiscent of the handwriting of the Kingston family patriarch, Carl John Kingston ("CJ"), who came to Chile in the early 1900s as a mining engineer. These horse names were written for the new labels by my father and CJ's grandson, Michael Kingston, who grew up on the farm in the 1940s & '50s, and who remains very active today in the family farm and winery.

Dear Friends,Early this morning, I went for a walk in Las Condes, our new neighborhood in Santiago. Our late summer mornings here are beautifully brisk and quiet. It’s my favorite time of day to explore, and reminds me of walks I took at daybreak through the hills of San Francisco when I first moved to California 22 years ago.

My husband Andy and I have moved our family to Chile for the year. Our three daughters are attending a girls’ primary school a few blocks away in Santiago, with their Chilean cousins. They dutifully (sometimes not so dutifully) wear their navy uniform dresses to school each day, and paso a paso are improving their Spanish on the playground and in their lenguaje class.

Our vineyard is an easy hour’s drive west toward the coast. It will be a treat to watch summer fade into fall, fall fold into winter, winter burst into spring. Living in the US, I’ve “dropped in” every couple months to Casablanca for 10 days here, two weeks there—but rarely had the chance to watch the farm gradually shift with the seasons. 2014 will be an opportunity to explore and experience Chile in a new way.

To order wine, please visit our website. Old Corral Club members receive advance allocations of their personalized wine selection, a 10% discount on all orders, and complimentary tastings in Casablanca. To join the Corral, please call us to learn more or sign up online. We also offer free shipping on one case or more.

We only send release letters twice a year, but on our blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest you can get more frequent updates on Kingston. Read the latest on our harvest, hear the birds in the vineyard, and get travel recommendations for your next trip to Chile.

We hope you enjoy drinking these wines as much as we’ve enjoyed making them.

At Kingston we’re fortunate to have a small team, many of whom have worked on our vineyard or our farm for years if not decades. In many ways, everyone feels like an extended member of the Kingston family---some with stories that go back generations in Casablanca, and others who have called our small corner of Chile home more recently. We thought it would be fun to continue to share the stories of the people behind Kingston---this month telling you more about Pilar Jara, our enologist at the winery.

Pilar grew up in Concepción, Chile’s second largest city after Santiago, located about a six hour drive south of Santiago. (Most recently, Concepción made national headlines in 2010 when an 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit nearby). When Pilar turned fifteen, her family moved north to the Casablanca Valley in search of work. They settled in Casablanca for a few years, but her parents ultimately returned to Concepción. Pilar chose to stay behind. In 2005, she came to Kingston to work harvest and pick wine grapes as part of our vineyard manager, Patricio Monsalva’s team. Pilar made a name for herself with her dedication and can-do enthusiasm, and soon caught the eye of Evelyn Vidal, our winemaker.

In late 2005, we broke ground on our own small winery at Kingston. (Prior to that, we had been making our small-lot wines in a small rincón (corner) at our neighbor's winery, Casas del Bosque.) Evelyn asked Pilar to join the founding crew at the winery for the 2006 harvest. That year Pilar quickly learned to do every job from punch downs and pump overs to driving the forklift (which you can see her doing in the picture below if you look closely at the mirror). She learned almost every facet of winemaking through her hands-on experience in the vineyard and the winery. With Evelyn as her mentor, Pilar soon took on all the enology work in our winery’s small laboratory. There she studied each vintage’s fermentations and young wines in barrel, always keeping our team appraised of each tank or barrel’s composition---an important and key part of top quality winemaking.

Three years ago, Pilar took the initiative to invest further in her career by studying in the evenings at the Universidad de Playa Ancha in Valparaíso. With our support, she’s been pursuing a degree in Chemical Analysis and will graduate later this year. On top of her studies and full time work at the winery, Pilar has raised two boys, Felipe and Diego. We couldn’t be more proud of Pilar. She is a treasured member of our family and team, and an inspiration for us all. When you come visit us in Casablanca, say a special hello to Pilar. Along with the rest of the team at Kingston, she’ll look forward to welcoming you.

Dear Friends, Ten years ago, few friends would take me up the invitation to visit us in Casablanca. Admittedly, Chile is a long way away from much of the world. The flights to Santiago were barely half-full (this had its benefits: I depended on my “C” seat always becoming “C+D+E” for the overnight flight).

But in 2011, the New York Times named nearby Santiago #1 in its “Places to Go in 2011,” and then National Geographic Traveler praised our neighboring Valparaíso in its “Best Trips 2013.” Things changed.

Like our handmade wines, a visit to Kingston is still—and will always be—an intimate experience. All tastings and tours are private, by appointment only. Old Corral members are complimentary. Here’s what a few guests have said on TripAdvisor about their time with us in Casablanca:

“A truly behind-the-scenes experience. I would highly recommend [Kingston] to anyone looking to go off the beaten path and experience something remarkable.”

“Of all the places we visited in and around Santiago,our trip to Kingston was the highlight.”

“A tour only surpassed by the wine.”

How to Order Wine

To order wine, please visit our website. Old Corral Club members receive advance allocations of their personalized wine selection, a 10% discount on all orders, and complimentary tastings in Casablanca. To join the Corral, please call us to learn more or sign up online. We also offer free shipping on one case or more.

We only send release letters twice a year, but on our blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest you can get more frequent updates on Kingston. Read the latest on our harvest, hear the birds in the vineyard, and get travel recommendations for your next trip to Chile.

Our family began the quest to make artisan, sustainable wines from Chile’s Casablanca Valley almost twenty years ago. At the time, Chile’s forte was producing large volumes of wine at very affordable prices. Our dream at Kingston was not to make large volumes of wine, but instead to produce artisan wines from one place---our family's farm in western Casablanca.

Back in the early 90's, many smart, young chilenos were graduating from Chile’s top winemaking programs—la Pontifica Universidad Católica de Chile and la Universidad de Talca. Winemaking was a respected career in Chile, drawing on centuries of winemaking after the arrival of the Spaniards in the 1500s. The majority of young chilenos sought jobs at large wineries that promised respected corporate structures and senior management opportunities. Cabernet sauvignon and the Maipo Valley were king.

We hoped we were onto something in the cooler western hills of Casablanca, only 12 miles from the Pacific. Our family decided to make a bet on pinot noir and syrah, hoping that some of the most exciting wines on Chile’s coast were still to come. But this new frontier needed an entrepreneurial, risk-taking winemaking culture---one that did not yet exist at the time in Chile.

I (Courtney) was in graduate school at Stanford University in the mid-1990’s, and wondered if we could start an intercambio/exchange program for artisan winemakers between Chile and California. An impressive number of Chileans winemakers already worked abroad, even outnumbering the Australians training in the U.S. at the time. But again, everything was skewed toward big production----most chilenos worked on crews at large operations like Robert Mondavi or Kendall-Jackson making chardonnay or cabernet, preparing them well for similarly scaled wineries at home in Chile. A limited few got the opportunity to make artisan wines on the coast under some of California’s best pinot noir winemakers.

Beginning in 2001, we started connecting winemakers both in Chile and California to create our own mini winemaker exchange program. We worked with Edmundo Bordeu and Yerko Moreno, the chairs of the enology departments at la Católica and Talca, to identify some of the up and coming young Chilean winemakers who would seize the opportunity to mentor under a Californian winemaker making small-lot pinot. Our hope was that these young winemakers would bring their hands-on knowledge back to Chile. Having known our family for years, Yerko understood what we were looking for immediately: “ustedes necesitan alguien cuatro a cuatro” (You need someone hands-on---with four-wheel drive). So we spread the word and looked for winemakers that were eager to learn, dive in and get their hands stained. We leveraged our Chilean-American family's contacts in both continents to facilitate the logistics, and created a Kingston "fellowship" to support top candidates who otherwise couldn't afford the trip.

Over the years, our exchange program and fellowship have supported Chileans to mentor under respected pinot noir winemakers such as Michael Terrien (then at Acacia), Ken Bernards at Ancien and Bob Cabral at Williams Selyem. We're thrilled to have returning Kingston fellows like Julio Bastias settle back in Chile, and now leading the way on the coast with Matetic Vineyards (a respected pinot producer in San Antonio Valley). Ana Salomó, another fellow, returned from Williams Selyem, and now makes wine for Porta. Along the way, we’ve also sent members of our own small team, including our own winemaker, Evelyn Vidal to Talley Vineyards and our vineyard manager, Patricio Monsalva, to Ridge Vineyards.

In 2013, we celebrated our 10th vintage at Kingston. Looking back, we're thrilled to see how far artisan winemaking has come in Chile. Hopefully the small seeds we began to plant years ago with our intercambio not only affected those individual winemaker's careers, but more importantly laid the foundation for world-class artisan wines from Chile.